bestfightstory wrote:Can somebody explain why Brazil isn't considered one of the 8? And how that works? I get that the host country is automatic but Brazil is surely a top 8 side.

they are just ranked 11 by FIFA... much like the power rankings for the NFL (although there is some math involved) its pretty subjective.

Brazil didnt have to go through qualifying so its difficult to see how they would have fared against teams like Colmbia, Uruguay, Argentina, etc... they were less than awesome in friendlies, but hardly a true judge of strength.

Smelly McUgly wrote:How do they figure the eventual groups? Is it random draw, or is there a formula?

Also, as first-place finishers in the CONCACAF qualifiers, are there any perks to that even though we aren't a top seed?

POT 1 is basically the number 1 seeds. the rest are regional. POT 2 is CONCACAF and Asia, POT 4 is Europe, POT 3 is South America and Africa.

Winning CONCACAF doesnt help (unless I missed something) unless you get a 1 seed. They randonly pick a all the 1 seeds, then the from POT 2, POT 3 and finally POT 4 (which is really exciting because those teams are typically very good, and watching to see which 1 seed gets drawn with the top European teams can dictate the first stage of the tournament)

There may be some other nuances I am missing as far as each POT, but i'm fairly certain its that simple

Oh, I see. So they just will pick a team from each POT randomly to make up groups once the rest of the teams are cemented.

In other words, we could end up in a group with Spain, Brazil, and England, theoretically.

Ugh.

On the other hand, they should televise the draw and do it like they do the NBA Draft Lottery draw, with giant envelopes with national team logos and everything. I would totally make sure to tune in for that.

Colin Kaepernick is a great person, something that the NFL is sorely lacking.

Smelly McUgly wrote:Oh, I see. So they just will pick a team from each POT randomly to make up groups once the rest of the teams are cemented.

In other words, we could end up in a group with Spain, Brazil, and England, theoretically.

Ugh.

On the other hand, they should televise the draw and do it like they do the NBA Draft Lottery draw, with giant envelopes with national team logos and everything. I would totally make sure to tune in for that.

Oh they televise the s--- out of the draw. Its televised world wide. Each POT and nation has a world celebrity involved in the drawing (Charize Theron represented South Africa the last time out) and it comes with ping pong balls and everything.

I'm sure there's more to it (maybe each POT is seeded as well?), but its fairly random and quite a production. EDIT: so in reading it, teams from the same confederation (CONCACAF, CONMEBOL, etc) cannot be drawn together in the same group, except for POT 4 (UEFA: Europe) Because they place the most teams in the tournament the last 8 teams are drawn completely randomly, so 2 UEFA teams can occupy the same POT. Therefore, in this tournament, none of the South American teams will be drawn against each other.

Literally the draw a group (Lets say G) then draw a team from the POT. they repeat this process for each POT. So its not as easy as drawing in order... pretty cool to watch actually

edit: so far with the simulator the US best draw is: Switzerland, B-H and Nigeria.